The 1st Athens Biennale launched in 2007 with the exhibition Destroy Athens marking a decade of rich activity for the city of Athens. Since then, we have established a differentiated model for a biennial which sets its position in the local and international art scene. We have become collaborators, producers and advocates of more than …Continue Reading

The Athens Biennale OMONOIA presents The Meeting Room an extended component of HOW Assemblies Matter? and an ongoing collaborative research project by Jenny Marketou at the Varvakeios venue on 8-18 December 2016.

Athens Biennale OMONOIA resumes its action with September events. Artists from Greece and abroad refocus on Omonoia square, exploring diverse ways of interaction with the Athenian public. All the projects have as a reference point the venue of Bageion and the venue opposite of Varvakeios Market.

C.A.S.A. ABOUT LOVE #3 | talk by Francesco Kais Friday 27 May | 18:30 – 19:30 | Bageion Francesco Kiàis is an artist, an independent art writer and curator. He is a member of the curatorial board of the VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFOMANCE ART WEEK and collaborates with different educational programs, both as a theoretician and …Continue Reading

Avtonomi Akadimia On this Land and Third Cinema Today | screening and talk by Amin Husain Friday 27 May| 16:30 – 18:00 | Bageion Currently in its early phase of post-production, On This Land is a feature length film and trans-media work by MTL Collective that takes viewers on a journey to a land frequently invoked …Continue Reading

#assembly of desire, lecture by Mriganka Madhukallya | Avtonomi Akadimia Wednesday 25 May| 17:00 – 18:00 | Bageion, 18 Omonoia Square How can one create a resistance to the assimilation and expendability that is a prerequisite of globalization? In what terms, in relation to the movement of bodies, can we consider the shift from understanding play …Continue Reading

Puerto Rico | Saturday 28 May | 19:00 The Nick Boricua Museum, 43 Athinas Street, Athens, Building opposite the Varvakios Market The programme of this final part of Synapse 2 will be complimented by Puerto Rico. Realised by artists Alexis Fidetzis, Panos Sklavenitis and Kostis Stafylakis, Puerto Rico is a project that wishes to explore …Continue Reading

Theaster Gates talk, May 30th, 19:00 @ Ballroom In the context of Synapse 2 of Athens Biennale 2015 – 2017 “OMONOIA”. Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates has developed an expanded practice that includes space development, object making, performance and critical engagement with many publics. Founder of the non-profit Rebuild Foundation, Gates is currently a Professor in …Continue Reading

“Emergency Turned Upside-Down” | short film by Oliver Ressler 25-31 May 2016 | Bageion, 18 Omonoia Square (ground floor) Emergency Turned Upside-Down (15 min, 2016) presented at the Biennale from May 25th to May 31st (ground floor) was shaped by the “summer of migration” of 2015, when the Schengen system was suspended for several weeks …Continue Reading

Between May 25-31, the Athens Biennale 2015-2017 OMONOIA resumes its activity with the second, and final, opening of Synapse 2. In this condensed 7-day event, AB5to6 continues with a series of talks and projects inspired by the OMONOIA curatorial framework.

Between May 25-31, the Athens Biennale 2015-2017 “OMONOIA” resumes its activity with the second, and final, opening of Synapse 2. In this condensed 7-day event, AB5to6 continues with a series of talks and projects inspired by the “OMONOIA” curatorial framework.

The International Summit explores the role of art institutions and cultural organizations in the current political and economic context of global dispossession, austerity and inequality. What kind of institutions should art biennials be? Where should they look for their public and political constituencies? What kind of practices should they nurture? What forms of sociability, relationality …Continue Reading

The first section of “Synapse 2: Rethinking Institutional Critique. A View from the South.” concluded on 24th April. Synapse 2 will be reopening its doors on the 25th of May and conclude its works on the 31st.

Same Time Tomorrow | A project by Tani Ilichenko and Moritz Metzner in collaboration with Campus Novel The video will be screened in Bageion (3rd floor) during the weekend, at Athens Biennale opening hours (12:00-21:00). The project Same Time Tomorrow features the creation of a video palimpsest of predetermined (and on purpose accidental) scenarios in …Continue Reading

We are happy to invite you at the second part of the workshop Speleo~ / Σπήλαιο~ in Bagkeion under Synapsis 2 Athens Biennale 5to6 Omonoia. The second part of the workshop will be held in 22, 23 and 24th of April and participation is open. In this phase the workshop aims to collect stories and …Continue Reading

Playroom | Sightseers | open workshop Duration: 17-24 April 2016 During theSynapse 2, Athens Biennale 2015 – 2017 “Οmonoia”, the Playroom team will be inhabiting a room on the 1st floor of the Hotel Bagkeion, launching “Project Room”, an artistic platform for both children and grownups, which through a series of participatory workshops plans to review the …Continue Reading

In the context of Synapse 2, at Bageion: Netting the Work Gomenes I A performance art project on Gender and Stereotypes The Netting the Work project *GOMENES* *I*, arises from the examination of gender stereotypes in the form of performative and alternative *fe-male* narrative methods inviting Greek and Austrian artists and theorists to act together.

CRISIS DOCUMENT | Avtonomi Akadimia After several screenings of artistic documents on recent political movements, and considering an archive to be an element of its own biopolitosculptural construction principles, Avtonomi Akadimia is honoured to host the research program “Document and Contemporary Art”. Friday 13/5/2016 | 18:00 to 21:00 | Bageion In the context of Synapse …Continue Reading

Avtonomi Akadimia Final Fantasy. 21 translations of purpose in Japanese. Hermeneutics of myth, manga and RPG talk by Hiroshi McDonald Mori “How has the subculture of Manga and RPG, a phantasmagoria of myriad perspectives, inclusive of various queer and radically left politics, been able to infiltrate and simultaneously establish and undermine the society of the …Continue Reading

In the context of Synapse 2, Athens Biennale 2015 – 2017 “OMONOIA” Locus Exoticus Daysign Workshop of Panos Sklavenitis in collaboration with Playroom will take place at Bageion . Locus Exoticus Daysign Workshop is a two-day workshop that is part of the Daysing project, a project by Panos Sklavenitis that has been realised since 2012, …Continue Reading

In the context of Synapse 2: Rethinking Institutional Critique – A view From the South, seven Greek artists initiatives, will hold an open public discussion about their identity, their work and their role in the Greek art scene. Monday 18/4 | 17:00 to 20:00 | Bageion Hotel Participants: Sofia Simaki, Bhive (Gerasimos Avlamis), Fokidos (Sofia Stevi), Enterprise Projects (Danai …Continue Reading

Acoustic weapons: from the walls of Jericho to the GitMo playlist talk by Sebastian Schäfer Avtonomi Akadimia “We were working secretly for the military, our experiment in sound was ready to begin. They told us, all they wanted was a sound that could kill someone from a distance.“ Kate Bush – Experiment IV

The Athens Biennale 2015-2017 OMONOIA and the DOME PROJECT present the DOME Experience “Traces” between the 27th of February and the 6th of March at Bageion Hotel, Omonoia Square. What does refugee crisis mean? How do we perceive what we experience as humans, as humanity, and how will it be inscribed on our collective memory …Continue Reading

Rethinking Institutional Critique – a View From the South invites leading international scholars, artists, activists and cultural organizations to rethink their institutional forms and ways of working together by embracing the perspective of Europe’s south.

Rethinking Institutional Critique – a View From the South invites leading international scholars, artists, activists and cultural organizations to rethink their institutional forms and ways of working together by embracing the perspective of Europe’s south. Rethinking Institutional Critique – a View From the South invites leading international scholars, artists, activists and cultural organizations to rethink their institutional …Continue Reading

Athens Biennale 2015-2017 “OMONOIA”: between the 18th and the 28th of November 2015 a total of 3,500 visitors attended its opening events and actions in the area around Omonoia Square, with the historic Bageion Hotel as the focal point. 85 Greek and foreign artists presented over 40 actions which involved the public in an unprecedented creative fusion.

*Emilios Harbis, “Athens Biennale, a social CERN at Omonoia”, Kathimerini Newspaper, 19 (November 2015), p.13 A total of 3,500 visitors attended the opening events and actions of the Athens Biennale 2015-2017 “OMONOIA” between the 18th and the 28th of November 2015, corroborating the need for developing alliances and collaborations. In the area around Omonoia Square, with the historic …Continue Reading

In the context of KYKLOS OMONOIA, the Breaking News collective presents Conversations, a number of ephemeral self-organized interventions, discussions and screenings around Athens on December 4, 8pm at Romantso, which are realized during the period of ten days that the collective has spent in Athens as part of the Athens Biennale 2015-2017 “OMONOIA”. Breaking News …Continue Reading

Synapse 1 hosts an international summit, bringing together participants from European cultural institutions, scholars, art historians, curators. Structured in three theoretical strands: Alternative Economies, Rethinking Institutions and the Performative in the Political, the summit will explore issues such as commons and urban welfare, cooperativism and precarious labour. Participants are asked to elaborate on and bring …Continue Reading

The Athens Biennale introduces to the Greek public the Swiss cultural organisation Sound Development City (SDC). The Athens Biennale 2015–2017 “OMONOIA” launches a new series of activities KYKLOS OMONOIA aiming to introduce international creators and cultural organisations, which visit Athens to get in touch with the local scene and experience the atmosphere of the city, …Continue Reading

Bridging the past with the present and the future, the Athens Biennale 2015-2017, symbolically titled “OMONOIA” (Concord), launches a two-year period of activities, starting now. Gradually the program will reach its peak in the summer of 2017, in various venues across the Athens centre and, more specifically, around Omonoia Square. Due to the constantly changing …Continue Reading

Occupy, Resist, Produce, a film project of Dario Azzellini & Oliver Ressler is introduced to the Athenians by the Athens Biennale. The Athens Biennale 2015–2017 “ΟΜΟΝΟΙΑ”, in the framework of the Athens International Film Festival (Opening Nights), presents the film project of Dario Azzellini & Oliver Ressler Occupy, Resist, Produce on October 2, 8:15pm. In …Continue Reading

Massimiliano Molona has been appointed Programme Director of the next edition of the Athens Biennale which is symbolically titled “OMONOIA” (Concord) that will launch in November 2015 and –contrary to the usual biennial model– run through 2017.

Massimiliano Mollona, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths College, London, will lead the Athens Biennale for the next two years, running a daring and experimental programme which highlights the current views on contemporary art and unfolds in three strands of debate and research intervention: the emergence of alternative economies, the performative in the …Continue Reading

The Athens Biennale, constantly intuitive towards the institution of biennales, revises its identity by extending its duration to two years. Bridging the past to the present and the future, the fifth edition of the Biennale (2015) merges with the sixth (2017). The Athens Biennale 2015 – 2017, a daring and experimental endeavor launches its activities …Continue Reading

The European Cultural Foundation (ECF) is proud to announce the ECF Princess Margriet Award laureates for 2015 – the Athens Biennale (Athens, Greece) and the Visual Culture Research Center (Kiev, Ukraine).

We still believe, or many of us do, what the Exodus first taught, or what it has commonly been taken to teach, about the meaning and possibility of politics and about its proper form: – first, that wherever you live, it is probably Egypt; – second, that there is a better place, a world more attractive, a promised land; – and third, that “the way to the land is through the wilderness”. There is no way to get from here to there except by joining together and marching.

Skydive 594 x 841 mm Ultrachrome print on 300gsm cotton paper Edition: 30 This piece is from an exhibition called Carnival. It depicts a visual circus augmenting the epic proportions of rhino poaching. Sideshows and visual spectacles set the scene for ironies in dehumanization and environmental disrespect. It is an honest look into the human …Continue Reading

The sound installation is composed of five most widely spread world religions and its main prayers: Christianity, Islam, Jewish, Buddhism and Hinduism. I have cut up the most important religious texts from each religion. Afterwards I have put them into seven separate pieces picking words by chance. In creating a new prayer – DADAMantra I …Continue Reading

Installation subject Name: Maqamat my subject is talking about the contemporary human condition And his sense Homesickness within a square shape Relief work within three walls (partition) so that this relief is part of the wall and the same color as the wall This relief consists of four square pieces duplicate upside down for be …Continue Reading

Salt is the protagonist in my installation because as I concluded from my research it is an element with 14,000 uses in life. Even today, the history of salt touches our daily lives. The word “salary” was derived from the word “salt” because Roman legionnaires were paid in salt, “salarium” the Latin origin of the …Continue Reading

We Acrobat constantly in the continued understanding between the Visible and the Invisible. A window that is wide open in front of us and gives us the reason of the actual existence and non-existence, the relation of the microcosm with the macrocosm, the persistent search of light, the understanding of the incomprehensible , which is …Continue Reading

The Whisper of Trees Linocut on 300gsm Italian Maimeri etching paper 90 x 55cm Edition: 20 This work forms part of a larger body of work entitled Elegy – my latest solo exhibition at the University of Johannesburg Art Gallery (4 – 28 September 2013). “In my work, time and space appear to dissolve, and …Continue Reading

The piece is about an opening of the third or mind’s eye, allowing the individual to attain a higher sense of conscious awareness with the universe, seeing himself as an integral or active force within the universe and his immediate surroundings as opposed to being a passive onlooker. He then realises that he is in …Continue Reading

The modern era is focused particularly on technology, and we are now to be linked to objects that until a few years ago seemed to be chimeras. My sculpture represents a computer, but with the screen replaced by a book with pages ruined by the weather. Books no longer on paper but interactive. The flip …Continue Reading

SUMMARY OF PROPOSED ACTION: Philippe Obadu was born in Senegal and has no formal qualifications. He works as a beach trader and speaks five languages. His name has been changed to protect his identity. Tanya Cottingham is a London artist with thirteen years of experience generating extensive underground art Actions. She currently studies in the …Continue Reading